Fall For My Ex's Mafia Father novel Chapter 253

I head down for dinner just before six o’clock, having spent the majority of my day laying in my bed, staring at the ceiling. But unlike the last time I did that, this day’s staring was fueled by melancholy, not rage, which is…way worse. Because while anger makes me seek solutions and want to tear the world to pieces, being sad and worried just feels…hopeless.

I’m still sighing as I push open the door to the kitchen, and it only gets worse when I realize that my cozy sweater and jeans were apparently not the correct attire for the evening. Natalia sweeps towards the patio carrying a basket of bread and wearing a flowing floral dress with not a speck of pasta sauce on it, despite cooking all afternoon. She sees me and immediately smirks, running her eyes over me like the unkempt ragamuffin that I probably seem to her.

I just take a deep breath and move immediately to the big fridge in the galley kitchen that I know holds the wine. As I get there, I see that Daniel has beaten me to it, closing the door and smiling at me when he sees me. “Hey,” he says, holding up the chilled bottle of white wine in his hand. “You want a glass?”

“Can you pour me two?” I ask, quirking my head to the side and blinking at him innocently.

Daniel laughs at me and just shrugs, taking two wine glasses down from the rack and pouring one much fuller than the other. “Why so blue, Fay?” he asks, bumping his shoulder against mine. “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” I sigh, looking up at him and opening my mouth to tell him what Ivan said about the threat to his family, but before I can begin Natalia is back, her eyes instantly on the wine glass in my hand.

“Fay,” she says, clicking her tongue at me as she bends down to open the oven. “Don’t you know that those glasses are only meant to be filled to the widest point? You will ruin the flavor.”

“I poured it, Natalia,” Daniel says, leaning back against the counter and giving her a friendly smile. But I just shrug and drain the glass of half of its contents, until the wine indeed only reaches the widest point in the glass.

“There,” I say, giving her a wide and false smile. “Better?”

Natalia laughs a little at my joke but, as she moves past Daniel and I with a hot dish of lasagna she whispers a new dig. “There is nothing worse than a drunk woman, Fay,” she informs me, giving me a sad little look. “You should watch your drinking. We worry for you.”

And then she’s gone and I bare my teeth and snap at the air after her, making Daniel laugh.